Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

In the previous chapter we saw how Paul had explained how circumcision was of no value as an identity marker if the Jew did not keep the law perfectly. Did this mean that the Jews had no advantages in being called by God to be a special people? They had one great advantage, which is that they possessed the word of God. Paul says more than that they possessed it – he stresses that it was entrusted to them, by which he means they were to communicate its message to the Gentiles. The Jews chose to communicate the details of the law, but is that they message that they were meant to communicate? The message they brought to the rest of the world was not a message of hope. Although it was contained in the Old Testament, it was not the message of the Old Testament. The message of the Old Testament was not that we should keep the law in order to be recognised as God’s people. So what the Jews were doing in stressing law-keeping was that they were hiding the real message of the Old Testament, ...

Jesus is now speaking to his disciples as they walk together on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane. The last verse of chapter 14 indicates that they had left the upper room in which they had been meeting. It may be that they were now passing a vine, and Jesus used it to illustrate his teaching. Jesus here makes one of his well-known ‘I am’ sayings. The illustration had Old Testament roots because in several of its books the people of Israel are likened to a vine (Ps. 80:8-16; Isa. 5:1-7); when Jesus says that he is the true vine he means that he is different from the nation of Israel, which was an unfaithful vine. The illustration depicts one of the central doctrines of the Bible, that of union with Christ. This great doctrine is so comprehensive that it must be divided in order for us to grasp it. Therefore, for example, there is eternal union (united to Christ in the eternal covenant), positional union (united to Jesus by faith at conversion), practical union (outworking the ef...

As we have read the words of Paul so far in this prominent book of the New Testament, two emphases stand out very clearly for us. The first is the reality of two destinies in the eternal world and the second is the necessity of inner genuineness with regard to an individual’s spirituality. While other emphases will be highlighted later in the book we can see as we move into this next section of his letter that he continues to stress those two details. Even as we observed earlier in the series, and should remind ourselves as we work through its content, Paul is like a painter producing an outstanding portrait and who paints the dark background of sin in order to illuminate brighter the wonderful features of God’s salvation. The dark background continues until 3:20. So what strokes has the apostle brushed on? Two Defining Principles (2:12-13) Paul mentions two basic realities that must be understood if we are to appreciate the message contained in the gospel. The first is that ‘al...

In these verses Jesus gives for the benefit of his disciples further insight into his return to the Father. In verse 29, he says that he has told them these details in order that their faith would be strengthened. Some have suggested that in these verses Jesus begins to use military language. His closing sentence, which indicates that this was the point when they left the upper room, is the kind of words that a leader in an army would use when leading his troops into battle. Certainly he was going to face a conflict, whether or not he used words with tones of battle about it. It is clear from this chapter that the several announcements by Jesus about his future had caused concern and disappointment to the disciples. They had imagined that they were on the verge of prominent roles in an earthly kingdom, but Jesus had made clear that this was not going to happen. Their thoughts were preoccupying them and preventing them get full benefit from what Jesus was teaching. Jesus’ words to ...

We noted in our previous study that God called Abraham to go and live in Canaan because it would be there that his descendants would live and become a blessing to the world. When we come to the event described in Exodus 3 about 500 years have passed since the time Abraham received his promise. Obviously 500 years is a long time and many events can occur. Since we are considering the purpose of God to bring blessing to the world we can ask whether or not any progress is visible. We can mention a few answers to our question. One descendant of Abraham has been a source of blessing to the world, and that descendant was his great grandson Joseph who was the deliverer of the world from a famine that threatened the entire region. Obviously we can say that he was a partial fulfilment of the promise to bless the world. The descendants of Abraham had greatly increased in number, and from that small beginning they now numbered about 2,000,000 (we can give a figure by considering the number w...